Inside the Travel Lab

Ouchijuku Village, Japan For some reason, these photos look calm. Yet in reality, a blizzard raged and the muted glow of the snow-plough’s headlights provided just enough light to let me capture this scene: fragile, snow-cloaked candles beneath an otherwise relentless black sky. Sleet assaulted our eyes, abraded our cheeks and hounded our cameras, while [...]

From the moment I opened the parcel, I could tell it was going to be special. I’d expected a standard “how to cook book” but instead I discovered a dreamy journey to India, bound between hardback pages adorned with purple and gold. Tasting India by Christine Manfield is clearly a labour of love. With India, [...]

Dust rose from the ground as the horse thundered past and the sun began its ablutions. It painted pinks and pomegranates, amber, pistachio, charcoal and soft apricot rust across the walls of Petra before calling it a day and turning in for an early night…

A man casts a glance over his shoulder before arching back and casting his line into the water. The street chatter and rush hour traffic drown out the subtle splash but from the look on his face, you’d think he stood alone in the countryside, miles from anyone, miles from anywhere.

Whenever I feel the cold breath of winter on my neck as autumn runs out of time, my tastebuds turn to octopus, the signature dish at…

Close your eyes and feel the sticky weight of the sunshine, its humidity heavy on your skin while sonnets of spice and a chorus of cardamon compete with cloves, cumin and chopped coriander on the streets of Little India…

Quite simply, good food is one of the best things in life, wherever you find it. And Malaysian street food ranks among the best of the best.

When I first caught the expression of this monkey, poised and watchful, I imagined to myself he might be wearing an expression of prayer, of solemnity, of reverance.

How wrong I was…

Today is photo Friday and it’s also my last day in Malaysia. While the internet access has been scant, the experiences have been plentiful. And let’s face it, that’s the best way round for things to be. So, as I’m typing this out on an iPad at the speed of the snarling traffic in KL [...]

The latest in the series of fun quizzes about travel takes you into the jungle in Asia where a tree wraps its branches around a very special something…